Watch The Video: The video was removed because of autoplay.
While I am attracted to the subject matter and imagery that Justin Guariglia is working with. For the purposes of this post I am most interested in his unique approach to photographic printing. From my past posts on Factum Arte’s multilayered printing process, you can see this is a subject that intrigues me. An artist shouldn’t just be reduced to process but it’s the process that really peaks my interest. Thankfully in Guariglia’s work, both are tightly combined.
He coined and trademarked the term “Plasticene Printing” to describe the process of printing, sometimes in multiple layers, with UV cured polymer or resin inks on surfaces wich are slow to break down over time, such as aluminum and polystyrene. Process and concept collide wonderfully here, using materials and processes that speak directly to the time scales in the landscapes and global process that he is capturing. The term is also a play of Anthropocene time period we live in, due to the measurable presence of plastics in our environment and the impact we are having on the geology and ecosystem of our planet.

Image © Justin Guariglia
The use of large formate flatbed LED UV inkjet printers (swissqprint) gives Guariglia the ability to print on a multitude of surfaces that don’t easily work within traditional chemical or inkjet processes. The UV cured inks, particularly when used with the flatbed layout, allow for registered multilayered printing. In Guariglia’s case, this gives some of his work a three dimensional quality as multiple layers of cured resin build up. Traditionally flat works can have dimensionality without having to first manipulate the printing surface as the source.